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Mortgages

Mortgage Rates

Here Are Today's Best Mortgage & Refinance Rates for August 6, 2020

Homeowners are taking advantage of record low interest rates as the housing market shows signs of recovering from the early pandemic lockdowns.

According to Realtor.com’s Weekly Recovery Report, the housing market continues to see improvements in the pace of sales, buyer demand and home prices, although inventory is still tight.

The index, which sets 100 as its pre-COVID baseline, reached a mark of 103.8 for the week ending August 1, an increase of 0.1 point from last week. The report shows that homes are selling four days faster than in 2019 as high demand, low mortgage rates, and a limited supply increase competition among buyers. New listings are down 11% year-over-year, while total housing stock is still down by more than 30%.

“Real estate activity in the U.S. has regained its strength and continues on an upward trajectory as we enter the middle of the summer,” said Javier Vivas, Realtor.com’s director of economic research. “The housing market will need to remain above pre-COVID levels for at least another ten weeks to make up for the lost activity in the second quarter of the year.”

The West region continues to lead the way with a mark of 110.5, followed by the Northeast with 108.2. The South and the Midwest are inching closer to the baseline at 99.5 and 98.8 respectively.

What are people paying for mortgages right now?

Borrowers with 700 credit scores were charged an average of 3.583% to secure a 30-year fixed-rate purchase mortgage on Tuesday, according to Money's survey of over 8,000 mortgage lenders across the country. The average rate for a 30-year refinance was 4.42%.

Average Refinance Rates Today

A homeowner with excellent credit who qualifies for the lowest rates as reported by Freddie Mac can save a significant amount of money when refinancing. A year ago the average mortgage rate was 3.60%. A homeowner with a $250,000 mortgage balance paying 3.60% on a 30-year loan could cut their monthly payment from $1,137 to $1,038 by financing at today’s lower rates. (It is important to consider closing fees and that refinancing could reset the clock on your mortgage, meaning you will have to make payments longer.)

What should house hunters be watching next?

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to release the July jobs report. It is expected that the report will show that the labor market—though still severely challenged—is improving, although at a slower pace than in May and June when a total of 7.5 million jobs were added to the economy. Experts are predicting that 1.3 million jobs were added in July, bringing the unemployment rate down to 10.6% from June's 11.1%. The unemployment rate reached a high of 14.7% in April.

What are today’s advertised rates?

Of course, mortgage rates vary widely by location and personal factors like the size of your down payment and your credit score. Here are today’s advertised mortgage rates at some of the mortgage industry’s largest lenders. (All rates are APRs. The rates you see may be different.)